1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in apparatus orienting articles to a proper loading orientation and for loading articles into a container. More specifically, the invention relates to the loading of pliable packages of fragile items, such as bakery goods, into containers, such as trays or baskets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior product orienting and loading systems are known, one such system being disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,263 to Schneider et al. That system reorients the product by the use of a turntable disposed beneath the upper flight of a window conveyor. Thus, the apparatus must push the product twice during the reorienting operation. First of all, the window conveyor carriers or pushes the product against a stop which holds it while the window conveyor runs out beneath it to allow the product to drop through the window onto the turntable. Then, after the turntable has reoriented the product, the conveyor section of the window conveyor engages the product and pushes it off the turntable. These pushing operations can damage delicate and fragile products, such as bakery products. Furthermore, because of these pushing operations, only certain patterns of product can be accommodated on the turntable without being disturbed by the pushing operations.
The Schneider et al. system also utilizes a window conveyor in loading the product into a container. In that system the speed of the loading operation is limited by the speed of movement of the loading window conveyor.
The Schneider et al. system has a lift mechanism for lifting an empty container from a delivery conveyor to a loading position at which it is transferred to a container support for loading. Pass through of containers on the container conveyor cannot continue until the lift mechanism has been returned to its lowered position. This complicates delivery of containers to a series of orienting and loading machines stationed along the container conveyor.